“People with disabilities have been in the shadows for far too long,” Amy Wright said as she was accepting the award for being CNN’s 2017 hero of the year. “But no more!” In my book, Amy Wright is truly a hero in every sense of the word. She and her husband Ben have...

Special. The word warms my heart in many ways. Except when it is used in the context of my disability. Then it kind of drives me crazy. Maybe it’s the label. When I was in school, I was mainstreamed. It was decided very early that it would not be appropriate for...

In her poem “Human Families,” one of Maya Angelou’s lines is “We are more alike my friends than we are unalike.” __________________________________ The trip was more than thirty years ago, but because the lesson I learned was so profound,...

It seemed like something I would really love. When I first heard that a nationally known wheelchair dance company was coming to my city and performing, I knew I wanted to go see them. For several years, another type of dance, wheelchair ballroom dance, had been a big...

For many years now, I have been fascinated by self-improvement. How can I move from where I am to where I want to be? How can I lose some of my negative habits? So I often find myself reading various articles on the topic of what makes people happy. The answer is...

Do you want to know my definition of a pet peeve? It’s pretty simple. A pet peeve is something annoying that people do that is totally unnecessary, in my opinion. There are several that get under my skin. People who don’t think I am intelligent because...